Is Your Path Unclear?

Chances are you clicked on this email because your path is unclear.

I can assure you it’s definitely true for the person writing this email. 🙂

The other day I heard a quote from Joseph Campbell:

“If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s path.”

Two years ago, I veered off a familiar path of 18 years to a new one. In some ways, I think we all have.

If you’re a church leader, things are different now.

If you’re a business leader, the same is true for you.

As a matter of fact, I think it’s true for all of us.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with a well-worn path. There are times we need to stay on it. And yet, there comes a time when we need to stop, look back, appreciate how far we’ve come, and then take a step into the tall grass of a new, untraveled path. Actually, it’s not a path at all. It’s new, fresh, tall grass, a place not yet traveled.

This is what so many of you in our email community are doing right now, but you might even not know it —> You’re blazing a new trail. It’s where the term trailblazer comes from. It doesn’t just belong to a professional basketball team. The term trailblazer can belong to you too.

Trailblazers learn from and appreciate the past. But they don’t get stuck there.

Trailblazers are comfortable figuring things out as they go along.

Trailblazers aren’t surprised when things get difficult. They expect it.

Trailblazers get knocked down but they get back up, even if it’s just one step forward for that particular day.

Trailblazers don’t ask, “Is it working?” Trailblazers ask, “What are we learning?”

I’m not suggesting you necessarily have to leave where you are.

It might mean, for example, you blaze a new trail in student ministry that can be more impactful.

Or, it might mean you focus on one area of the business that needs a new path of effectiveness.

Or, yes, it might mean you leave where you are. In fact, here’s an indication that this might be you. When you saw the Joseph Campbell quote above, you stopped and read it twice. (Pay attention to moments like that.)

Whatever it might be, here’s what I know about trailblazing — at first, the path is ALWAYS UNCLEAR.

If you’re waiting for the path to be cleared, then you’re waiting on someone to clear it for you. That’s not a bad thing, but I do wonder, if in some ways, it’s the path that leads to regret.

Trailblazers have lots of scars, battle wounds and bruises. But they never have the regret of not trying.

It’s why I wanted to remind you that the path of “What to do Next” is always unclear at first. It’s not a sign that something is wrong with you.

It’s a sign there’s something inside of you. You’re a trailblazer (even if it you didn’t realize it until now.)

FOR You,
Jeff Henderson

PS. Did you know What to do Next is on Audible? Click here and let the trailblazing begin: